Live migration programs, such as with vMotion from VMware, Inc., migrate a memory image of a source virtual machine (VM) to a target VM. In some instances, the migration is implemented while the parent VM is being executed and, thus, while memory pages are being modified. A set of synchronization cycles enable the source and target VMs to ‘catch-up’ to each other.
Some known live migration techniques anticipate only one target VM and migrate the entirety of the source VM upon receipt of the request for migration. This technique restricts users or software from selecting target hosts based on dynamic conditions at the time of migration. Moreover, migrating the entirety of the source VM may be costly in terms of bandwidth and resources over long distances.